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Teardown of New iMac Reveals Upgradable Processors, RAM (macrumors.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the all-in-one dept.

According to an iFixit teardown, Apple's new 4K 21.5-inch iMac has both removable RAM and a Kaby Lake processor that's not soldered onto the logic board. Whereas the previous models had soldered memory modules, the new iMac's memory sit in two removable SO-DIMM slots. MacRumors reports: iFixit made the discovery by disassembling Apple's $1,299 mid-range 3.0GHz stock option, which includes 8GB of 2400MHz DDR4 memory, a Radeon Pro 555 graphics card with 2GB of VRAM, and a 1TB 5400-RPM hard drive. After slicing through the adhesive that secures the 4K display to the iMac's housing and removing the power supply, hard drive, and fan, iFixit discovered that the memory modules aren't soldered onto the logic board like previous models, but instead sit in two removable SO-DIMM slots. Similarly, after detaching the heatsink and removing the warranty voiding stickers on the backside of the logic board, iFixit found that the Intel SR32W Core i5-7400 Kaby Lake processor sits in a standard LGA 1151 CPU socket, making it possible to replace or upgrade the CPU without a reflow station.

6 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. I suppose that's an improvement, but... by Solandri · · Score: 5, Informative

    Having to slice the adhesive securing the screen to the housing, remove the power supply, hard drive, and fan, and tilt out the logic board to swap memory modules isn't exactly user-friendly. It still gets only a 3/10 for repair-ability.

    1. Re:I suppose that's an improvement, but... by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Informative

      yeah apple just didn't bother yet with soldering the components yet since they don't have market data about demand so it's easier for now.. and you have to break the glue anyways, making it a no no for most users.

      they might start doing that for cost cutting without telling anyone though once the new line is up to speed in production.

      Well, the processor is easy. Intel doesn't sell BGA parts yet. Apple's only one customer of Intel and they're only able to buy what Intel can supply. Most likely what Intel can supply immediately in the quantities Apple wants at the price they want precludes BGA parts and soldering.

      Apple did the math - Intel can custom produce the CPUs for Apple, but likely the demand is such that Intel doesn't really want to (everyone is waiting for Kaby Lake processors, so when Intel started providing them in quantity, Apple became like everyone else) so quoted Apple the "if you really want it, we can do it" price. Or they can take what Intel is making right now and supplying everyone, with the benefit that it's no longer a custom order and Apple can buy what they need, at the expense of making it socketed. Or in other words, it's cheaper socketed right now because Intel is providing them in quantities to everyone in that format.

    2. Re: I suppose that's an improvement, but... by _merlin · · Score: 3, Informative

      So you've forgotten iMacs where you could just flip open the plastic door and replace the RAM, with no tools and no consumable, and no chance of fucking up the process of cutting the display out?

  2. Re: 5400 RPM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Yup, as predicted, there's a comment whining about Apple's significant upgrades to the iMac line. Grow up, kiddies.

  3. Mac is 1,000 times the size of the hobby market by raymorris · · Score: 2, Informative

    > Apple needs to get back to it's roots for PC, computers as a hobby.

    Apple could do that if somehow their products completely failed and they were in survival mode. Apple is currently the largest computer company in the world and the ninth largest company in the world. They sell 17 MILLION Macs every year, for 23 BILLION dollars in Mac sales.

    The entire "computers as a hobby" market is maybe a 23 million dollars each year, one tenth of one percent of Mac sales. They would literally give up 99.9% of their sales by focusing on people who want to tinker with their computers. To make it worse, they'd lose most of their margin. Hobbyists aren't going to buy Apple-branded RAM for $300 if they can get similarly speced RAM from Kingston for $200.

  4. Re: 5400 RPM? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 3, Informative

    If that's the problem, you can wipe the OS and install a linux distro, then the 5400 rpm HDD will be fast enough. Even with things bloating up (GTK3 instead of GTK2, etc.) it's stayed reasonable and this kind of hard drive does above 100 MB/s.